Please Help! Do I Have Celiac Disease?

I am now 20. I was diagnosed with IGA nephropothy (auto-immune kidney disease) about 5 years ago after finding blood in my urine. The doctor never did a biopsy and diagnosed me with this because of the IGA found in my blood. I had eaten 3 wendy's burgers and fries that day, then ran intensely while playing two entire basketball games in a tournament. I have been tested positive for IGA in my blood every time i have visited since then. I have also slowly devoloped redness on my face. In the past two years i have devoloped extreme anxiety and social phobias and my heart periodically goes crazy. I have had chronic sinus infections, chronic fatigue and a light rash on my deltoids. I stumbled upon this site and have been gluten-free for about two weeks. All my anxiety has completely gone away, i dont even feel shy which has never happened to me since i can remember. My sinus infection and my chronic fatigue has been perfect as well which has plagued me for 2 years now. I used to also get periodic hot flashes and haven't had one in two weeks, maybe these were a reaction to eating gluten??? The hotflashes were very embarrasing and noticible because the redness on my face is blotchy and becomes very red in contrast to the rest of my face, it looks like a weird sunburn. It is not very noticible now unless i am exercising. Do I have Celiac disease? If so will the redness go away as well? I have not heard of others devoloping redness, only an acne-type rash which is what i have on my deltoids. I have an appointment with an allergist in two weeks, will they be able to diagnose me. Also, i have been gluten free and right now i have exams and am afraid to eat gluten because i can't afford the brain fog i had before, I thought i was going to fail, but now i am back on track to pass. Won't they just test for IGA, which i have already been tested positive for? Also, will the test be negative because i will have been gluten free for four weeks by then? Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

An allergist would be able to run the blood work (which may indeed be negative since you have been gluten-free for a significant time), but for a "conventional" diagnosis you would need to see a gastroenterologist. You might also want to check out Enterolab, which offers a smple, non-invasive stool panel for celiac disease. If money is a concern (as it is for me right now), the single test for celiac disease-related antibodies costs $99 (plus shipping and handling, I think). It might be worth saving the money for, since you DO NOT have to be eating gluten to get accurate results!

Many of your symptoms sound so familiar to me: anxiety, "shyness," chronic nasal stuffiness, chronic fatigue, acne on the shoulders, facial redness (rosacea) all the time, and generalized blotchiness under stress. These have all improved dramatically since I went gluten-free (and casein-free as well, since I also react to dairy products) last Halloween.

My opinion is that since you seem to have isolated the (or at least a) cause of your ongoing troubles, stay gluten-free. At the very least, put off any gluten challenge (which I personally consider barbaric) until after your exams are over!